Wood bowl

I found this piece of wood in a architecture shop and have no idea what kind of wood it is. It took two new blades to cut this piece of wood off. I put it on my lathe to turn. It took many sharpings to turn it. This was the hardest wood I have ever worked with. If you know what kind of wood it is please let me know.

Does look a lot like red oak… which can be pretty tough to turn sometimes. For comparison, here are some red oak (partially spalted) bowls I turned and finished the same way as you – no stain, just clear poly.

Lighting is a bit wonky – in real life, the color is very close to that of your bowl.

Cheers,Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

It does look like it came from the oak tree family, there are a lot of oak varities . I doubt it is “red oak” because red oak has very open or porous grain and yours is tight more like a Live Oak or Tan Oak. End grain turning is always difficult but it looks like you did a great job of it. Next time you might try a carbide tipped tool to reduce the problem of sharpening so frequently. As a suggestion you can fill the cracks with thick super glue and I often mix in fine sawdust (collected from sanding the wood) to fill the cracks. Put the sawdust in first. The thick super glue sets up just slowly enough to allow it to seep into the crack, so keep adding more until it stops seeping in. If I’m in a hurry I treat it with an accelerator to get the glue to set up quicker.

That’s some type of oak, as medullary rays are prominent in the pictures shown. Given that the wood was so hard and Krafter lives in Florida I think it’s likely to be live oak. Live oak is 2680 Janka hardness whereas red and white oak are 1290 and 1360 respectively. It’s hard stuff.

Thanks Brad, those are pretty bowls you turned and the color is very close to mine. I think Bob Anderson is right about the wood a live oak. Thanks Les you right about using a better tool next time. Hi Tony it is good hear from you again. Thanks to everyone and their inputs. Got get some better tools.